De Waart is an unsentimental conductor. Where othersmay gush and embrace enveloping sweep and volume at the price of nuance anddetail, de Waart seems constantly and technically aware of all the componentsbuilding the sound at every moment. The quality I admired most in Saturdaynight’s performance of this 70-minute epic was restraint. That’s not somethingI ever thought I would say about a Mahler symphony. Tempos moved alongthroughout. The fourth movement “Adagietto” was a fast nine minutes; somerecordings are more than 11 minutes. But de Waart’s tempo felt right, and keptthe melody from being stretched to destruction.
The conductor reportedly put the orchestra throughan unusual number of rehearsals this week, including sectionals. It showed.Always good in the past, the strings came to exciting new life, with unifiedsectional blends not heard before. The brass maintained balance even in theloudest sections, which were reined in rather than blasting far above the restof the ensemble, a historical danger with this section. Similarly, thewoodwinds had ensemble restraint, as did the percussion. Throughout, eachmusician onstage seemed to be working at newfound awareness of playingtogether.
Once assistant to Leonard Bernstein, de Waartcreated a program with a tribute theme to his mentor. Bernstein was thetowering Mahler interpreter of his era. The concert began with Bernstein’sSymphony No. 1 (“Jeremiah”), composed in 1943 at the age of 25. It’s almostunbelievable that this piece had never before been played by MSO. In movementstitled Prophecy, Profanation and Lamentation, the Jewish-themed symphonyculminated in a moving finale with vocal solo elegantly and sympatheticallysung by mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke.
